I Walk Alone
by Carnivore
Summary: A look inside Severus's twisted psyche on the night after the Department of Mysteries fiasco. (Contains some lyris from Green Day's "Bouleveard of Broken Dreams")


DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Warner Bros., Inc. No copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Boulevard of Broken Dreamsis owned fully byGreen Day and it's record company. No infringement is intended. 

* * *

I Walk Alone

'_Well, I am officially fucking insane.'_ Severus thought, facing the endless, dull field in front of him.

Of course, it wasn't the first time he had seen this field. It fact, it wasn't even a real place, but a figment of his imagination, manifesting itself in his dreams. It was just he hadn't actually admitted to himself his own insanity for the entire 17 years he'd been having the damn dream.

No trees. No hills. Nothing. Just a bland, flat plain of short, dead, brown-yellow grass beneath an endless, grey sky, and in the middle, a single, straight path. Nothing else.

I walk a lonely road, 

_The only one that I have ever known,_

_Don't know where it goes,_

_But it's home to me and I walk alone._

Well, except for that sign that appeared every few miles with the arrow pointing down the path. And so, with nothing else to do and nowhere else to go, Severus continued walking down the endless path, just like he did every other night.

_I walk this empty street,_

_On the boulevard of broken dreams,_

_Where the city sleeps,_

_And I'm the only one_

_And I walk alone._

And so, everything went as normal. Severus would walk through the endless limbo until he woke up. But this night held a slight difference. Tonight he encountered somebody other than himself on the path.

"Hello Black."

"Snape. Surprised to see me here?"

"No, not particularly. I received the news of your demise tonight, so I was expecting you to show up in one form or another. I had, however, hoped it would something inanimate. Like a rock."

Sirius started walking along beside him.

"That's very kind of you."

"What is it that you are here for?"

_My shadows the only one that walks beside me,_

_My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating._

_Sometimes I wish someone out there would find me,_

_Till then, I walk alone._

Sirius chuckled to himself, "You know, seeing as I'm your worst enemy, you don't seem all that angry that I'm invading your mind."

"That's because you are not Black. You are simply my subconscious manifesting itself as Sirius Black."

Sirius fell silent and continued to walk along with Severus.

"So, supposing I'm not your subconscious or whatever and I actually am Sirius Black, would you mind explaining where you're going? I could use a some exposition."

"If you were, in fact, Sirius Black, you would not be here. Especially seeing as Black is dead, and as far as I know, the dead do not have any special power to invade a person's dreams."

He said, emotionless,

"In any event, I do not know where this path leads. I am simply following the signs."

"Signs? Like the Virgin Mary appearing in a burrito?"

"No. Not at all. More like that, right there."

Severus pointed to the short wooden sign that had recently come into view.

"Oh. So, why follow the signs? Why not rebel and go the other way?"

_I'm walking down the line,_

_That divides me somewhere in my mind._

_On the borderline, _

_Of the edge,_

_And where I walk alone._

Severus paused, and turned around.

"Because of that."

Sirius turned around as well, and his eyes widened in shock at what he saw.

It was a harsh contrast to the grey,lifelessfield. A rolling void, consuming the barren plain. Misty swirls of black, green, red and purple, flowing in an endless emptiness. The soundsof death andinsanity emitted from it. This was madness and evil in its purest form.

And it's what Severus was running from.

Sirius turned back quickly. Taking a moment to recover from what he just saw, he soon caught up with Severus, who had continued walking.

_Read between the lines,_

_What's fucked up and everything's all right._

_Check my vital signs,_

_And know I'm still alive,_

_And I walk alone._

"That's why you're following the signs? To kept yourself from going insane?"

"That's probably the correct answer."

Sirius paused, contemplatively.

"How long have you been running?"

"Since I went to Dumbledore. Since I became his spy."

"That's a long time to keep running. It'll catch up to you, eventually. "

Severus turned to him, angrily.

"What the hell do you – "

Sirius was gone. The dirt path showed only the footsteps of one person walking.

Severus sighed and looked back at the void.

'_Maybe it will catch up. Maybe it already has.'_

He sighed again.

"Ah, well."

Turning back to the endless path before him, he continued walking

_My shadow's the only one the walks beside me,_

_My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating,_

_Sometimes I wish someone out there would find me,_

_Till then, I walk alone._


End file.
